Thursday, January 2, 2014

Why "Best Of Lists" Are Entirely Subjective

This article is going to kind of tear down "Best Of" lists. Considering I just spent a bunch of posts saying what various things I thought were the best in 2013 this may seem kind of hypocritical, but bear with me and it'll be clear what I'm driving at.

We are now a full two days into the "New Year" of 2014 (I guess it stops being a "New Year" and is just "a year" around February?) and many individuals have posted their lists about what was the best movie, game, show, comic, etc. in 2013. I always crack up when other individuals get extremely mad about someone else's "best of" list and starts going off about how, "Its stupid you didn't include _____!" or, "How could you pick ____ over ____?" The reason I laugh is that "best of" lists are entirely subjective. It is what that person, website, newspaper, television show, or whatever thought was the best out of everything else. It is by no means an impartial statement that has to be taken as the word of God. Just as it is an oxymoron for people to call for "objective reviews", everything a person says comes from their own opinions, experiences, and outlook on life.

We rely on reviews because we like to see what people thought of something, but until we experience that form of media for ourselves we can't truly have a full opinion about it. I loved the controversial and divisive "Django Unchained" and thought it was both insightful and great fun. Other people thought it was utter trash, but unless you go and see it you can't really say in your own view if it is a great work or terrible and offensive one.

When someone says they felt something was the best thing of 2013, they aren't saying it as if it is the gospel, they are saying that in their opinion, a certain thing beat all other forms of entertainment last year. Just keep that in mind next time someone says they think a piece of absolute trash is the best film ever, because they could very well think your favorite flick is atrocious. It's all relative.